Retired Judges Cash In

Jon Lender

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's March 14 nomination of 66-year-old Democratic National Committeeman Anthony V. Avallone for a Superior Court judgeship has highlighted the fact that Connecticut's retirement program for judges is more generous than for other state employees.

Some are indignant that, if confirmed by the legislature, Avallone would qualify for a $103,000-a-year pension after only 3½ years when he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 70 in December 2017.

Superior Court judges are paid $154,559 a year, and a judge who remains on the bench until he turns 70 gets a pension starting at two-thirds his salary — no matter how few years he's served.

Like all other state retirees, Avallone — who is an attorney, Capitol lobbyist and former state senator — also would receive 3-percent annual cost-of-living increases in his pension amount along with lifetime health coverage.

But judges also enjoy a couple of other lucrative advantages after they retire:

•While collecting their $100,000-plus pensions, retired judges are allowed to double-dip, as some call the practice, by working for $232 a day as senior judges and trial judge referees. Some 100 retired judges were paid about $2.8 million in each of the past two fiscal years by working at the "per diem" rate while collecting pensions. In the past fiscal year, 98 retired judges averaged about $28,000 each for about 128 days of work apiece.

•The retired judges are paid for the mileage they drive from home to the courthouse and back when doing the "per diem" work — just as active judges receive mileage for their daily commuting, in a rare perk. Fifteen retired judges, aged 65 to 93, collected more than $40,000 apiece in "per diem" money in the past fiscal year, and that group received a total of $45,428 for mileage. That's an average of $3,028 each.

Retired judges work in two capacities — as senior judges and judge trial referees — and they hear many of the same kinds of cases, both criminal and civil, that they presided over as active judges.

Retired judges' current rate of $232 a day is a recent increase over the previous "per diem" rate of $220 . That will rise to $244 starting July 1.

The retired judges get paid for a day no matter how many hours they work. They are required to fill out a form every two weeks saying where and on what days they worked, as well as specific work performed. They don't need to list their hours, but they "are expected to work a full day," said Melissa Farley, executive director of the Judicial Branch's external affairs division.

Judicial Branch officials say retired judges are a bargain for state taxpayers, because their "per diem" work keeps the number of active judges below 200 without adding additional full-time judicial positions with accompanying benefits.

"Judges are required to retire at the age of 70, pursuant to the state constitution. This mandatory retirement age is highly unusual and doesn't apply to other similar professionals, such as lawyers and doctors," said Farley. "Many of our judge trial referees would have kept working if they were not required to retire."

"Judge trial referees and senior judges have years of invaluable experience on the bench. They hear a wide variety of cases and are available to help out, wherever they are needed," Farley said. "We are lucky that they have continued to work for the Judicial Branch."

The retired judges work from just a few days to more than 200. The one who worked and was paid the most during the 2012-13 fiscal year was Senior Judge Samuel Sferrazza, 65, who presided over a long-running civil lawsuit by five convicted killers claiming that Connecticut's death penalty law is racially biased; Sferrazza rejected that claim in October 2013.

A senior judge is one who has retired before age 70, under one of the other options in the retirement program. Those include: serving 20 years, no matter what their age; and serving 10 years through age 65.

There are far fewer senior judges than judge trial referees, who are all retired judges aged 70 or older.

In response to Freedom of Information Act requests this past week by Government Watch, the Judicial Branch provided totals for retired judges' work in the past two years. Here are the top 15 "per diem" payment recipients for the past fiscal year, 2012-13 (which ran from July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2013) at the old daily rate of $220:

Jon Lender is a reporter on The Courant's investigative desk, with a focus on government and politics. Contact him at jlender@courant.com, 860-241-6524, or c/o The Hartford Courant, 285 Broad St., Hartford, CT 06115 and find him on Twitter@jonlender.